Talking about adoption, birthparents, abandonment, race, and China with my kids. That's not all we talk about -- but reading this blog, you'll think it's all we do!!!!!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

China adoptee needs bone marrow transplant

Every time I hear a story like this, it strikes a chord of fear. When you have no information about birth family, no way to contact them, you have to worry about what would happen if your child needed a transplant. It's impossible not to personalize the story and feel overwhelming sympathy. Lydia's story also offers hope of finding birth family in China.

Five-year-old Lydia has leukemia and her American adoptive parents are looking for her biological family in China for a bone marrow transplant to save her life:

''We all knew that the chances of getting hit by lightning were probably greater,'' Mark said. ''It would be very unlikely for a child and a birth family to reconnect,'' Monica agreed. ''Very unlikely. Pretty much everyone said, 'It will never happen.'''

Everyone, it seems, except for one doctor-turned-detective at Akron Children's Hospital, who just happened to be from the same Chinese province as Lydia. Dr. Xiaxin Li, the new director of the bone-marrow transplant program at Akron Children's, was determined to find Lydia's birth family back in his homeland — and, in the process, to find a possible cure for his young patient.

I found myself teary eyed reading this. Can you imagine - getting her bone marrow from her long lost birth sibling AND also the gift of knowing who her birth family are? I wish I knew what form of leukemia she has, I am assuming it is not ALL from the article.I hope this family follows through. If they already went so far as to test the birth sister, I bet they will.

Lydia's birth family has been foundthere is a long article in theOhio newspaper about it. They arenow getting ready to bring thefamily over from China. Her doctorand the orphanage director helpedalot. Mary